Some people asked me (earlier on this forum) why I wanted to encode in 192kbps instead of 192kbps VBR... I don't know. The sound VS the file size at 192kbps => good for me. But I don't know about the VBR... Is the sound really better in 192kbps VBR? If so, and the files would be about the same size as 192kbps, Let's go!! How do I do it? I don't see this setting!!!

I know there's a lot of information on this site about my questions, but I am getting confused with all (a lot of) the details... I am very new at this, and I'm looking for very simple information.

And, in that thread, there is so much more settings then I can see in the Foobar settings choices.

What about --alt-preset standard -Y (around 160 kbit/s) ??

Where is that setting?

It's an experimental switch for ignoring noise in sfb21. All you need to do is open a cmd window and type "lame.exe --longhelp", without quotes and you can find out what all the switches do. However, the --alt-presets are the only recommened settings because they tweak things not available with custom switches, so use them at your own risk.

So if I want to encode in a safe way (with recommended settings) and having MP3s with the same quality (or higher, that I understood) as the 192kbps MP3s I already have (done with EAC+LAME in the past),

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--alt-preset standard will give you mp3s that average somewhere between 180 and 210 in my experience on average and will most likely be transparent to you, i.e. indistinguishable from the original CD. In my experience they are usually of higher quality than 192 kbps cbr as more difficult frames get more than 192 kbps. That's not to say I could necessarily ABX either in all cases

I suppose APS would be called 192 kbps vbr though I don't really call it that in practise.

VBR presets are based on quality, not bitrate. --preset standard might average as low as 128 kbps on simple, completely mono recordings, or close to 300 kbps on extremely difficult samples. Over a lot of files, it usually averages out to around 190, but there is no direct relationship between the quality setting and bitrate.

Thanks to norton for asking this question. And thanks to you others for bothering to answer. I too, am confused by all this stuff, and reading the threads only adds to my confusion. So Thank You for setting it out clearly.

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QUOTE (Cyaneyes @ Aug 22 2004, 02:11 PM)

VBR presets are based on quality, not bitrate. --preset standard might average as low as 128 kbps on simple, completely mono recordings, or close to 300 kbps on extremely difficult samples. Over a lot of files, it usually averages out to around 190, but there is no direct relationship between the quality setting and bitrate.

Well that's what I've meant. I've had APS files as low as 160 or so and as high as 250. But a good mean is somewhere between 190 and 210. Now if I'd said 192 abr then yes I would mean targeting a bitrate of 192.